Remarks by the President at Coleman/Kline/Minnesota Republican Party Victory 2002 Dinner
Target Center Arena
Minneapolis, Minnesota

6:10 P.M. CDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thanks for that warm
welcome. It's great to be back in Minnesota. (Applause.) I've had
some opportunity to welcome some fine Minnesota folks to the White
House. Last May, a couple of Minnesota teams came by to say hello that
happened to be national champs in -- (applause) -- in women's and men's
hockey. (Applause.) They felt pretty good about things and they said
they felt they're going to be back next year. (Laughter.) Next year
when they come back, Norm Coleman and John Kline are going to be with
me to greet them. (Applause.)

I want to thank you for supporting these fine candidates. I want
to thank you for being here tonight, and I want to thank you for what
you're going to do -- which is to man the phones and put up the signs
and convince your neighbors that these two men need your support for
the good of the country and for the good of your great state.

I'm proud to be here with not only Norm, but as importantly, his
wife Laurie. It's important to have a -- (applause.) And I appreciate
Vicky Kline, as well, being here with John tonight. (Applause.)

I know something about marrying well. (Laughter.) We --
(applause.) I'm really proud of Laura. Some day she needs to come and
campaign for these candidates if they want to win. (Applause.) I
don't know if you've heard me say this before, but when I married Laura
she was a public school librarian. And the truth of the matter is she
didn't particularly care about politics or politicians. (Laughter.)
And now, here she is, the First Lady of the greatest country in the
world. (Applause.) And what a fabulous, fabulous job she's doing.
(Applause.) She sends her best.

You know, one of the things about a President, people come by, and
they say, we appreciate the job you're doing. And one of my first
responses is that if you've got a good team, the job is a lot easier
than it might look. And I want you to know, I put together a fabulous
team. And one of my team members is here tonight, the Secretary of
Health and Human Services, the former Governor of the state of
Wisconsin, my close friend, a guy doing a great job, Tommy Thompson.
(Applause.)

I want to thank those who are -- who hold office now. The Speaker
is here, and the Senate minority leader is here, the Secretary of State
is here. Thank you all for coming. And I'm honored also to be sharing
the stage with the next Governor of the State of Minnesota, Tim
Pawlenty. (Applause.)

There's no doubt in my mind that these great candidates can win,
there's no doubt, because they bring a lot of qualities to the ticket
that the people of Minnesota will respect. Norm Coleman: First he
loves his family, he's a man of faith, he loves his country. He's an
independent kind of fellow -- nothing wrong with that. (Laughter.)
The thing I like about Norm is he focuses on results.

As the Mayor of St. Paul, I'm told a pretty Democratic city, at
least that's what the numbers looked like to me the last time I ran --
(laughter) -- he wins as a Republican because he brought a
compassionate conservative agenda to the people. (Applause.) He
focused on things that matter, like jobs and making sure children got a
quality education. (Applause.)

He agrees with me that, when it comes to educating our children, it
is important to have high standards and high expectations. You see, if
you don't think some kids can learn, the system will just shuffle them
through, the system will quit on them. That is not good enough for
America.

He understands that to make sure that every single child gets
educated, we must understand whether they're learning to read and write
and add and subtract. And if they are, we will praise the teachers.
And if they are, we will praise the teachers. But if we find out that
our children can't read, write, and add and subtract, we better do
something out it early, before it's too late. No child should be left
behind in America. (Applause.)

Norm's got a record of prosecution, prosecuting white-collar
crime. Our nation must have confidence in our institutions. I
oftentimes talk about the need for each of us to be responsible for our
behavior. Corporate America must be responsible for its behavior, as
well. We expect -- (applause) we expect balance sheets to be fair
and open. We expect transparency, and we expect those in charge of
corporate America to treat the shareholders and employees with the
utmost respect. (Applause.)

I need Norm in the Senate to help me on Medicare. Today, I had the
honor of going to the University of Minnesota Medical Center, and what
a fabulous place that is. It is first-class. (Applause.) And we saw
some of the new -- heard about some of the new drug therapies being
developed to save lives and extend life, and to enhance the quality of
life. And what we need is a Medicare plan that not only encourages
innovation, but gives seniors choices, all of which will include
prescription drugs. (Applause.)

I need a man in the Senate who will join me in nominating judges to
our courts, who will not -- (applause) -- who will not use the bench
from which to legislate, but will strictly interpret the Constitution
of the United States. (Applause.) And we need a voice in the United
States Senate who will focus on the people's business, not the needless
partisanship, the bickering, the name-calling that too often -- too
often fills that great chamber. We need somebody who can work with
both sides of the aisle, somebody who's focused on what's right for
Minnesota and what's right for America. And there's no doubt in my
mind that the right person to handle that important responsibility is
Norman Coleman. (Applause.)

And I'm here to campaign for John Kline for the United States House
of Representatives. (Applause.) If the good folks in his district are
wise, they'll send him to Washington. John served the United States
with distinction as a member of the Marine Corps. He understands the
need to support our military, and we need people who will support our
military in the United States Congress. (Applause.)

The thing I like about this good man is he actually worked on a
farm. He knows if you own the land and make a living on the land,
every day is Earth Day. (Applause.) He understands how important
farming is not only to his district, to his state and to the nation.
And he understands what I know: when you're good at something, you
need to promote it. Our farmers and ranchers are the best in the
world, and we need to be selling our farm products and ranch products
all over the world. (Applause.) I look forward to having John in the
United States Congress to work on the homeland defense, and on the
defense of our nation. And when you put him there, he'll bring honor
to that office.

I'm also here -- I'm pleased to urge you to work hard for your next
governor, Tim Pawlenty. (Applause.) He understands what I know -- if
you let people keep more of their own money, it invigorates the
economy. (Applause.) And he knows the best way to bring fiscal
disciple to anybody of government is to resist unnecessary spending.
Tim Pawlenty will be a fine and great governor for the state of
Minnesota, and I'm proud to lend my support. (Applause.)

I'm pleased to talk about tax relief and trade because it is
necessary to -- those are necessary items to make sure our economy
recovers. You know, in Washington, they talk a lot about statistics
and that's fine, this number's up or that number's down. What I worry
about is any time anybody is looking for work and can't find it, we've
got a problem.

So, therefore, I ask the question, how do we make sure we continue
to expand our job base? What does it take to make sure that the
entrepreneurial spirit of America is strong and vibrant so that there
are more jobs for people who want to work? And that means making sure
Congress doesn't overspend, doesn't over-commit, and making sure we
have fiscal sanity in Washington, D.C. (Applause.)

We cut taxes at the right time. You see, I read the textbook that
says, when people have more money, they're going to demand a good or a
service. And if they demand a good or a service, somebody's going to
produce the good and service. And if somebody produces that good and
service, it means somebody's going to find work. For the good of
long-term economic growth, and for the good of long-term economic
vitality, we need to make the tax cuts permanent. And I want a senator
and members of the House to do so. (Applause.)

One of the worst taxes -- one of the worst taxes in America is what
they call the death tax. It's a tax that taxes people's assets more
than once. It's a tax that hurts farmers and ranchers. It says you
cannot leave your business -- if you're a small business owner -- to
your relative. It says to some in America that if your loved one
passes away, that you might have to liquidate your family farm in order
to pay inheritance taxes. The Congress did the right thing in
eliminating the tax, but it only lasts, because of a quirk in the
Senate rules, for 10 years. We need people in the United States
Congress who understand how bad the death tax is to small business
owners, ranchers and farmers in America, and make the repeal of the
death tax permanent. (Applause.)

So I spend a lot of time on economic security, and will continue to
do so until I'm confident people can find work. I also spend a lot of
time on our homeland security. You need to know that we fight an enemy
that is not only ruthless, a group of people who don't value human
life, but they're -- they hide, and they're patient, and they're
determined to hurt America. People -- I'm sure some of the young here,
well, why would you want to hurt our country, why would they care? And
the answer is, because we're a beacon for freedom. We stand for things
they don't stand for.

See, we believe people should be able to worship the almighty God
anyway they see fit. They don't. (Applause.) We believe people
should be able to speak their mind. We believe in a free press. We
believe in open elections. What we stand for is freedom, and they hate
freedom. And, therefore, they hate us. But they may be patient; we're
more patient. They may be determined; we are more determined. They
may think they have hit a country that is soft and weak; they have
found out the United States of America will defend our freedoms at all
costs. We're going to hunt them down one by one and bring them to
justice. (Applause.)

We are we're making progress in a different kind of war. You
know, you watch the old war films, you'd see tanks moving across a
battlefield or formations of airplanes. That's not the kind of war
we're in. We're after international killers, cold-blooded killers,
that's all they are. They and, therefore, we've got to make sure at
home we're secure.

The other day, I made a far-reaching proposal that urges Congress
to join me in reorganizing our government so we can do as good a job as
possible about protecting the homeland. Listen, I didn't run by
saying, vote for me, I'm for bigger government. That wasn't my
platform. (Laughter.) But I did run, and say, give us a chance to
produce results. Now, you need to know that when it comes to homeland
security, there are over 100 agencies involved with homeland security,
which means it's hard to align authority and responsibility. We've got
100 of them scattered all over Washington. I think those agencies, for
the good of the country, need to be under one Cabinet officer.
(Applause.) We need to have as a -- the priority of these agencies,
the protection of the American people.

Now, some of the agencies do other things, no question about it.
But in order to effect a new culture, and to set new priorities, it
makes sense to me to have authority and responsibility aligned. And
this new agency will have several functions. One is to make sure we
understand who's coming into our country, and why they're coming in,
and whether they're leaving when they say they're going to leave.
(Applause.) This new agency will be charged with working with some of
America's finest citizens, our first responders, the police and fire
fighters and EMS teams all across the country, to make sure that we
respond to an emergency if it ever were to occur. (Applause.)

This new agency is in charge of working to deal with the threat of
bio -- a bioterrorist attack, so they've got the immunizations
available and our health care systems are prepared to respond. This
new agency will analyze data, intelligence that has been gathered from
around the world, and analyze it in one place to determine our
vulnerabilities, and then the response necessary to button up the
American homeland.

I'm proud of those who work for our government. We've got a lot of
fine folks working a lot of hours, running down any kind of hint there
is. Any kind of suggestion that somebody is going to do something to
America, we're responding as quickly as we possibly can. And we're
making good progress. But you just need to know, the best way to
secure the homeland is to do what we're doing. And that's to hunt
these killers down one person at a time.

In my speech to the country outlining my vision for a Department of
Homeland Security, I told the folks that we've we and our friends
have hauled in over 2,400 of these killers. (Applause.) Sometimes
sometimes you'll know about it and sometimes you won't. But what you
need to know is that wherever they try to light, we're going to get
them on the run and we're going to keep them moving. And we're going
to keep them moving until our military and our coalition brings them to
justice.

You've got to know how proud I am of the United States military.
What a great group. (Applause.) I asked the United States Congress
for a significant increase in defense spending. And I know the two
gentlemen up here, if they were in the halls of the Congress, would be
strongly supporting what I'm about to tell you. The reason I asked for
the biggest increase since President Ronald Reagan was the President is
because I believe this. Any time you commit an American youth into
harms way, they must have the best equipment, the best training, the
best pay possible. (Applause.)

And the increase also sends this signal to our friends and allies,
as well as the enemy: We're in it for the long haul. We're talking
about freedom. We're talking about civilization itself. History has
called our country into action. There's a big spotlight on America,
and our country will lead. We will lead this vast coalition.

I want you to know, the doctrine that says either you're with us,
or you're with the terrorists, it still stands. And we enforce it
every single day. (Applause.) If you harbor a terrorist, if you feed
a terrorist, if you finance a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the
killers who struck America on September the 11th, and we'll hold you
accountable, as well. (Applause.)

Our task is bigger than any single individual. We chase down a
network. And at the same time, I have tried to speak as plainly as I
possibly can about those nations with -- who harbor weapons of mass
destruction, who would dare try to blackmail the United States and
other freedom-loving countries. We cannot, and we must not, allow the
world's worst leaders to develop and deploy the world's worst weapons.
We owe it to our children and we owe it to our children's children to
be tough and firm. (Applause.)

We're making progress. We've got a lot of work to do, a lot of
work. And I appreciate so very much the resolve of the American
people. My, what a fantastic country we have. (Applause.) We are so
strong and so courageous and so compassionate, it leads me to declare
this -- that out of the evil done to America will come incredible
good. (Applause.) Out of the evil done to our country will be some
some positive developments, starting with this. I believe that, as the
United States continues to lead with resolution and determination, that
we can achieve peace. We can achieve peace not only here at home, but
we can achieve peace in places around the world that haven't dreamt of
peace, or dreamt that peace is possible. I believe it.

I believe that the terrorists I don't know what went through
their mind. They must have thought we were so self-absorbed and
materialistic that all we would do after 9/11 was file a lawsuit or
two. (Laughter.) What they didn't realize is that this is a great
nation, a great nation full of determined people, people not only to
work for peace, but people who here at home will seize the moment to
make our communities a more decent and positive place for everybody to
live.

We live in a fabulous nation, a rich nation, but we must always
remember that in our wealth, there are pockets of despair. There's
loneliness, there's addiction. There are children who wonder whether
the American Dream is meant for them. And I believe out of the evil
done to America will come the good of addressing those problems.
Because a lot of Americans have stepped back, and said, what is the
value of life? How do I have a complete life? And many of our fellow
citizens understand that to have a complete life, you love a neighbor
just like you'd like to be loved yourself.

There are thousands of our citizens on a daily basis responding to
the evil done to America by mentoring a child, or helping a shut-in, or
delivering food to the hungry, providing shelter for the homeless. And
that's the true strength of our country. We're a decent country, a
compassionate country. We understand that each of us can't do
everything, but each of us can do something to help make a difference
in changing America, one soul, one conscience, one heart at a time.
(Applause.)

And that is why I feel so strongly that our government must not
fear the compassionate programs that emanate out of the faith-based
institutions. We must not discriminate against faith. We must welcome
faith in America, in order to change lives. (Applause.)

And that's part of the spirit that is evolving in the country. We
are ushering in a new period of personal responsibility, where each of
us understands we're responsible for the decisions we make in life.
We're responsible for loving our children. If you're a mom or a dad
if you're lucky enough to be a mom or a dad, you're responsible for
loving your children with all your heart and all your soul. If you
live in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and you're aware of a friend in need,
you're responsible for helping that friend in need. If you're running
a corporation, you're responsible for open books and treating your
employees well.

That message came home loud and clear in Flight 93, the concept of
serving something greater than yourself in life. The concept of
understanding that patriotism is more than saying the Pledge or
saluting the flag. Patriotism is serving your nation by helping a
neighbor in need.

We had citizens traveling across the country; they realized their
airplane was going to be used as a weapon. They told their loved ones
they loved them. They said a prayer. One guy said, "Let's roll." And
they drove the plane in the ground to save other people's lives. It's
the new spirit of the 21st century. (Applause.)

And so, tonight, I urge you not only to work hard for these good
candidates, but work hard to be a part of making America a complete
country for everybody.

And it's happening. It's happening. You see, I can confidently
predict, out of the evil done to America will come great good, because
I'm the President of the greatest nation in the face of the Earth.

It is my honor to be here. May God bless you all, and may God
bless America. (Applause.)